Artist as collectors

Our lives are a flood of images and as artist we are the creators of collections of moments that create those images : moments of extreme emotion, pain, beauty, and fear.

Daylilyatnight

The difficult part of creating that collection is deciding whose emotions you will capture. As artist we look at life from a different perspective however as the historians that we are we must always consider the whole emotion of the moment as well. This is where work as an artist and just being an artist collide and sometimes separate. As a photographer shooting a wedding I must make sure I capture the emotions of the couple and their families so that I have the correct collection as a result. Some would say the emotion of every wedding is the same, and on the surface that is correct, however in depth it is not because there are always unique stories in every event whether it is a wedding, a birth or a death. As artist we must collect those emotions, those moments and be historians for the generations to come. But always remember to collect your own moments whether in your work or your life so that future generations of artist can know the emotions and the lives of those who laid the groundwork before them.
Be creative and collect today.

Inspiration: Moments in time

“You have to know the past to understand the present.” Carl Sagan

HighFallsbridge

If we don’t pay attention to our past our future is doomed. We will be destined to repeat the same mistakes of the past if we have not studied them. If we study the success of the past we can improve upon them in the future. As artist we have the unique ability to capture moments in time, tiny pieces of the whole that not only preserve the moment but the emotion of the moment as well. History tells the story, but art supplies the emotion.
Today use your chosen medium to express the emotion of a moment in time so that others can learn from it and build the future on it.

HighFallslady

Church takes out restraining order on 13 year old autistic boy

Broken painting

Normally this is a place where I talk about being an artist and try to move you to express your creativity, however today I can not ignore this story so please excuse me as a step away from artistic expression to spiritual expression for the day.
Recently in a church in the United States the religious leader took out a restraining order on a 13 year old autistic boy and his family rendering them unable to attend service where they had done so for several years each Sunday. The leader says he did so because he was in fear for the safety of others in attendance. The majority of those knew nothing of the concern or the restraining order. Semantics could be looked at (the family already sat in the very back so as not to be a distraction) is there an overflow room or somewhere else that they could have sat. That appears to not even have been considered.
For me there are two points of deep sadness here. First is spirituality (no matter the religion) not suppose to be a place where the broken, bruised, unwanted and crushed are accepted and embraced? Second who is to say that what the boy was doing was outburst, who is to say this was not spiritual expression for him?
I myself am a very spiritual person, however I have been estranged from organized religion for sometime now due to the very two things mentioned above. Organized religion in the United States appears to have become nothing more than a social and political club shunning the very people that they should be ministering to. As long as this child was not a physical threat to anyone why could it not be even considered that this was his expression of worship and everyone look for the beauty in that instead of focusing on the ugliness of their own comfort.

Spilled painting

Remembrance

Memorial soldier

No matter what the situation ART is present, in war, in oppression, in freedom however while some would say that in trouble times the greatest art is produced in times of freedom all expression is allowed in unconfined creativity. Please remember those who have given life, limb and emotion for your ability to express yourself the way you want to through your medium.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

By John McCrae 1915

Art and social commentary

Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments. An artist recreates those aspects of reality which represent his fundamental view of man’s nature. -Ayn Rand

BeautyGirl

There was an interesting show on the History Channel yesterday, it was about comic book art and the social commentary in the stories. Looked at as a whole comic books mirror our social history and our culture struggles. The artist as historian is not a new concept but I had never considered comic artist in this category. Yet an overview of the Marvel and DC comics show they are incredible historians reflecting the social and cultural moments of the times. Think of the impressionable canvas that their work was touching and it would not be a far reach to say that the comic artist had and have a hand in shaping the social and cultural views of the future.
All artist are influential in shaping our culture, some rage in the face of others and some quietly in the shadows. Who are you influencing today with your art?

What makes an artist

“The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Picasso

Waterweb-2

So what makes us artist? Is it our ability to feel all emotions deeper? Is it our eye that sees things from different perspectives? Is our ability to freeze a moment in time?
Today find what that definition is for you.

Waterweb

Mystery and Art

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”-A. Einstein

Mysterious

The first rule of art is expression of your thoughts, feelings, dreams and ideas. The second rule does it take the viewer to a new level of thought, emotion, etc?
One catalyst to do that is the mystery. Mystery comes in various forms like fog, shadows and dark.
The photo above might take a viewer into thought about the state of politics, or the economy.
Use of natural elements that create mystery can stir all varieties of emotions such as wondering, uneasiness, uncertainty or even fear.
Emotions provoke thought, creativity and change. So take someone to a new level today with your creativity.

Where did they go

Same scene different eyes

Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations. R.W. Emerson

How many times do you walk by the same scene everyday? Do you realize that with every moment it changes?

Roses in black and white3

As creative people we must learn to look at the same scene with different eyes as nothing truly stays the same. This is not only true with artist expression but with life, are you in a rut doing the same thing over and over again? It is time to break out of that rut by looking at that same scene with different eyes, look for the change, the shadow ,the light, the depth, something that makes you smile. Find the different and you will have new from the same old same old.

Roses in black and white

It is a challenge to make yourself look at things through different eyes, but you will reap great benefits in your creative expresssion and your life as well.

Roses in black and white2

Life moments

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.- anonymous

GreatFalls

When was the last time you had a life moment that took your breath away? Did you take that moment of breath taking beauty away with you by creating an artistic expression of it?
As artist we should be capturing those breath taking moments in our medium as well as taking ordinary moments and creating breath taking moments with our creative expression.
Today when life takes your breath away, capture it, remember it and express it to share with all.

No Path, Leave a Trail

“Do not follow where the path leads, Rather go where there is no path, and leave a trail.”-David Perkins

Stop accepting

The falls in the picture above is not coming over the rocks, but through the rocks. A river was dammed to create a lake and this water determined to continue its free flow made a trail through the rocks.

How often do we just accept things as they are because we see no path to change it? How often as an artist do you do things the way they have always been done?

Part of bringing out your creative expression is not accepting but leaving a trail. How different would your life be if you made just one trail? How different would our world be? Our world needs more trailblazers people who have made a decision that they want to go somewhere and they get there by making their own trail.

So what stops us from making trails?

Comfort
Fear
Acceptance

Today don’t accept, you don’t see a path then leave a trail.